China, Indonesia, and Mexico impose less tariff on US products than India and Vietnam: MC Analysis

Trump's got his eyes on India

China, Indonesia and Mexico are on a better footing when it comes to tariffs imposed on US imports, with over 75 percent of US merchandise exports to these nations attracting less than 10 percent tariff, according to a Moneycontrol analysis of World Bank data.

President-elect Donald Trump, set to take office in January, has threatened tariffs against the countries that charge higher duties on US imports.

In the run-up to the election, Trump discussed imposing a 60 percent tariff on China’s imports into the US.

In his first term, the US president imposed 40 percent tariff on some goods from China. The US president-elect has also threatened tariffs on BRICS nations if they move ahead with the idea of a BRICS currency.

A comparative study shows that India may attract more ire from the incoming US president compared to other nations.

While India imposes 10 percent or less tariff on 65.3 percent of the imports coming from the US, the corresponding figure for China as per World Bank data was 90 percent.

Nearly 80 percent of the product imported into Mexico from the US had 10 percent or less tariff, while the ratio was 79 percent for Indonesia.

Vietnam was similar to India in this regard, as 63.5 percent of US imports to the country attracted 10 percent of less than 10 percent tariff.

The study only deals in products that are traded between the countries. In the case of India, 3,638 products were traded compared with nearly 3,900 for China and 2,935 for Vietnam.

But, in comparison to Vietnam, India’s tariffs got steeper much faster.

While 24.4 percent of US imports to Vietnam attracted 10-20 percent duty and 9.2 percent attracted 20-30 percent duty, India levied 10-20 percent duty on 17.9 percent of product imports and 20-30 percent on 15.1 percent of goods imports from the US.

Moreover, nearly 4 percent of the products entering India had a levy of over 30 percent, but for Vietnam this was levied only on 3 percent of US imports.

But the gains from tariff reduction are not going to be huge for the US. An earlier analysis by Moneycontrol shows that even if US were to corner the entire market of products which attract over 40 percent tariff, it would only gain just $5 billion in exports.

China, Indonesia and Mexico levied over 30 percent duty on only 1 percent of US good’s imports.